An Aurundel Tomb- Time Flashcards
Overall
-time is presented as an inevitable force that both erodes and preserves leaving behind an ambiguous legacy.
“Side by side their faces blurred”
“Vaguely shown”
- opening line, introduced to the stone countess and earl ‘..’
- the figures seems fixed and enduring yet their faces are softened by time hinting at the gradual dissolution of their identity’s
-‘blurred’ and ‘vaguely shown’ suggests that what was once sharply defined has faded emphasising the fragility if physical forms in the face of times passage
-cesura contribute to the stanzas sense of building anticipation creating little pauses as new details are added about the tomb.
-pause right before “sharp tender shock” creates one final moment of tension before the speaker reveals that the couples is depicted as holding hands
“ jointed armour” “stiffened pleat”
-suggests that while it was intended to project permanence they are now outdated ad also comical “faint hint of the absurd”
-foreshadows Larkins critique of how time distorts human intentions and efforts to memorialise
“One sees, with sharp tender shock… his hand withdrawn,holding her hand”
-unexpected moment of intimacy in the formal aristocratic imagery
- simple detail is touching poignant, standing out from the formalities and solemnity
-“sharp tender shock”- felt by the observed over emphasises the timeless quality of human affection which cuts through the stuff needs and formality that time has otherwised imposed on the scene
-the sh sound have a sort of tenderness and sharpness all at once
-being used for the first time in the poem may come as a surprise to the reader mimicking the speakers surprise
“A sweet commissioned grace”
-however this implies it was the sculptors addition
- intended to add beauty rather than to immortalise their lov3
-time therefore transforms the gesture of closeness into a symbol of enduring love that outlasts its original purpose
“Such faithfulness in effigy’
In the fricative alliteration Larkin emphasises the gradual shift from genuine memory to impersonal curiosity over Time
- suggests the sculptors weak was never intended as an eternal testament of fidelity it was just a detail ‘friends see’
A minor touch to satisfy social and aesthetic expectations
- but over time this incidental feature becomes a defining attribute, transforming the couples legacy into a symbol of love
-Larkin shows how time distorts intention
- effigies themselves become a symbolic valued for what they come to represent rather than the individuals themselves
“Stationary voyage” “ soundless damage “snow feel undated”
-suggests the relentless passage of time that subtlety silently erodes both the physical sculptures and the human memory associated with them.
-seasons change, light fills the cathedral and people visit but the couples remain unmoving
‘Linked through lengths and breadths of time”
“Endless altered people”
-emphasis of cycle of life continuing around them underscoring the way in which the world moves on indifferent to individuals histories
- reveals that the world around it is in constant state of change because people no longer see it th same way
- despite the tombs intended function as a kind of permanent memorial any permemnace it has is due to its merely being a stone object
-its original meaning or significant has proven fleeting
“Bone riddled ground”
-subtly evokes mortality hinting at many who have died since the couples own time and the impermanence that touches all living things.
-consonance linked life and death subtly suggesting how much time has passed since the tomb was built
-long enough for life to turn to death many times over for the ground to be riddles
“Time has transfigured into.. untruth”
-Larkin conveys that Time does not simply preserve, it changes the very meaning of what it has kept
- what the have come to symbolise a fabrication
-real people and intentions is lost in the past and forgotten in the past and forgotten to time
“ what will survive of us is love”
- conclusion is both hopeful and ambiguous
Love endure but perhaps in a stylised symbolic form rather than as an active or remembered reality - Larkin was said to regret this line unclear what he meant and remains ambiguous.
Context
Larkin and Monica Jones took a trip to the cathedral in Chichester and saw the memorial
- Larkin found it affecting and later expressed disappointment when he found out that the linked hands were a later unhistoical addition
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“That air would change to a soundless damage”
-such at the power and relentlessness f Tim that even air becomes a destructive forces overdoing stone and making the identities of the earl an counties more remote
“To look not read’
-once upon a time people would go to the memorial to mourn
-soon the enscription on the room just became something people would look at rather than rea
- the tomb began to lose its intended meaning as a place for people to pay respect too and instead has become a more detached objet, a kind of historical curiosity
